tonight. what is the bottom line you want the american people to know? >> there was a very sophisticated, multipart plan overseen by donald trump. >> you cannot except when they steal and oversee and rob. >> to attempt to stay in power.

>> as the longest, largest investigation into donald trump's attempt to stay present comes to a close, we put it all together. >> i've got three men walking down the street, one carrying an ar-15. >> the explosive testimony. >> i ever heard the president say something to the effect of i don't think that they have weapons. let my people in. >> new insight from witnesses. >> i said, you want my states 3.2 million voters to be thrown out the window? >> was he asking you to commit a crime? >> i don't know what he believed. >> and what might lie ahead. >> the former president and his allies were present a clear and present danger to american democracy, not because of what they did on january 6, but because of what they pledged to do in 2024. >> a cnn special report, american coup: the january 6th investigation.

>> i'm a very textural artist. i love texter. >> the republican speaker of the house in arizona, russell bowers, is an artist by trade. bowers was thrown into a real- life drama. >> the bill number was 2596. >> it was one of more than 100 bills submitted in arizona to tighten access to the ballot box. the measure would have scrapped early voting. all voting would be on election day only. >> 90% of my district votes early. >> it would have mandated paper ballots. most egregious to rusty bowers was this. >> with no guidance or criteria, the legislature after the election could dismiss the election. i said, look into ashes on. >> 2596, elections. >> i said i will give this the

respect it deserves. so i sent it to 12 committees so we would have a long vetting process. >> military appear as affairs. >> it goes to four committees, you are getting the message. >> judiciary. >> i sent it to 12 committees. >> transportation. >> it was theatrical, and i admit it. >> because rusty bowers cannot for democracy, he will no longer be in the state legislature. >> i am rusty bowers. >> he ran in the republican primary for a state senate seat. >> i stood up to the radicals and kept my conservative campaign promises. >> my opponent was david farnsworth. >> david farnsworth is going to do the job. >> their positions on the major issues nearly identical except for one. >> i believe the election was stolen. >> farnsworth bought into trance claims. rusty bowers did not. >> arizona voters picked farnsworth over bowers.

>> i lost a big. it is possible that the bill i assigned liberally to my committees will be back. the possibility of that getting the signature of the governor would be a disaster. i call it the possibility of going back into the dark ages. in arizona. >> as the u.s. headed into the 2022 midterm elections, there was perhaps more at stake regarding american democracy than ever before. from arizona to pennsylvania to georgia, in all the so-called swing states, the former president, donald trump, that not only those who supported his lies about election fraud in 2020, but also often those who expressed a willingness to undo any future results that they don't like under the pretense of trumped up fraud. >> thank you, mr. president.

>> as this was happening, the house select committee investigating january 6 was interviewing witnesses, holding hearings, and gathering evidence to fully expose what the committee says was a plot designed to keep donald trump as president in 2020 and to try to make sure it can never happen again. >> what is the bottom line you want the american people to know from these hearings? >> there are several things, but one is that there was a very sophisticated, multipart plan overseen by donald trump to attempt to overturn the election. the president in our history has ever done anything even close to that before. >> liz cheney, just two republicans on the committee, has spent the last year looking her party and helping investigate donald trump's sophisticated multipart plan. the first piece the committee focused on were the lies. >> mail ballots are dangerous for this company country,

because they are cheater's. >> donald trump had talked about the possibility of widespread voter fraud for months. >> people steal the amount of mailboxes. >> looking back, it is clear he was laying the groundwork for this. >> this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this election. frankly, we did win this election. >> [ cheers ]. >> trumpet may have been crying widespread fraud, but he had no proof. what the former president did have proof of was that he lost. it was a fact made clear by the january 6 committee, which exposed to the world that so many donald trump aids, despite towing the line in public -- >> do you expect the president to concede >> that word is not in our capillary right now. >> they knew he was going to

lose legitimately and that he did lose legitimately, it missions they were forced to make under oath. >> i was in the oval office. at some point in the conversation, believed that a person was brought on and i remember he delivered to the president pretty blunt terms that he was going to lose. >> detroit. >> campaign attorneys followed up on all the fraud claims in the quickly concluded that fraud did not take the election from donald trump. voters did. the news was told to trance chief of staff at the white house, mark meadows, in mid-to- late november. >> i remember a call with mr. meadows. i remember sharing with him that we were not finding anything that would be sufficient to change the results in any of the key states. >> during a meeting several weeks later, the president got the same message from his white house counsel. and another white house lawyer, eric herschmann.

>> eric had told the group, the president included, but none of those allegations had been substantiated to the point where they could be the basis for any litigation. >> it is statistically impossible that the person who led the charge lost. >> but donald trump continued to refuse to publicly accept defeat >> the evidence of the fraud is monumental. more is coming out. >> audacious claims of widespread fraud became a daily occurrence. >> numerous times, we found glitches. every single time, the clinch went 100% of biden. >> that could have been mickey mouse. that could have been a dead person. >> sannieniola rudy giuliani is sidney powell. she said dominion voting machines were flipping votes for trump to bowers.

>> the dominion voting systems were created in venezuela at the direction of hugo chavez to make sure he never lost an election. >> after she was sued by dominion, her attorney eventually conceded that she lied, saying no reasonable person would conclude that her statements were truly statements of fact. long before that happened, the attorney general, bill barr, was investigating all of trumps flawed fraud claims. >> he had lost the election. >> he made it clear to donald trump in a november 23 meeting that he had lost. >> our role was to investigate fraud. is just not meritorious. they are not panning out. >> he was going to win in spite of all the fraud. >> spurred on by the most ardent election liars, including many in maga media, donald trump would not listen to reason or fact.

>> where is the doj and fbi in all of this mr. president? >> missing in action. >> they got under my skin. i felt it was time to say something. i set up a lunch with an ap reporter i told him that, to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election. >> a heated meeting followed and barr got another opportunity to debunk the lies. he focused on the claims about dominion voting machines. >> with a turn of a dial or a change of a chip, you can press a button for trump and the vote goes to biden. >> i told him that the stuff he was shoveling out was --. i saw zero basis for the allegations. they were made in such a sensational way that they obviously were influencing a lot of people. >> before the end of december,

bill barr had quit.'s replacement? jeffrey rosen, who came with a blunt yet low-key acting deputy attorney general named richard donoghue. they took seriously and thoroughly investigated each of the fraud claims coming from them president trump. in late december, richard donoghue spoke with the president and told him the truth about numerous false claims, including one involving dominion machines in northern michigan. >> there you had supposedly a site director, a cyber expert group say there was a 68% error rate. it was more like 0.006%. >> he also debunked claims about the state farm arena in atlanta, georgia. >> they were putting suitcases under a table with a black robe around. >> there were allegations about two cases of fraudulent pallets being smuggled into the

facility. >> now they will pull the ballots out from under the table. >> ballots run through multiple times. a u.s. attorney looked at it and found that none of those allegations were true. >> jeffrey rosen forwarded an email from mark meadows asking the department of justice to look into the possibility that italian satellites were changing votes from trump to biden. >> they said these new numbers backed up to this military satellite, a tiny italian military satellite. >> i was skeptical. we found that was not a well- founded allegations. we told the chief of staff and others, as well. >> what is going on over there? >> the top law-enforcement officials in the nation were investigating and finding nothing substantive. in the courts, the usual venue for claims about boating misconduct, the team of the president lost over and over again. >> courts again shutting down

more desperate attempts to overturn an election. >> you were on george w. bush's short list for a supreme court. you are not some raging liberal. is that fair? michael luttig is a highly respected retired judge. he did not hear any of the trump fraud cases. he and his colleagues that analyzed more than 60 of them. >> we reviewed each individual claim and decided there was nothing that would have changed the result in a single precinct, let alone a single state, let alone nationally. >> ahead. >> you are asking me to do something that is against my oath. i am not going to do that. >> donald trump puts the squeeze on statehouse leaders across the country. >> going to have a big impact on tuesday if you guys don't get this thing straightened out fast. communities and the people who live and work there

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we're in my office. this is the speaker's office. >> it's not every day a state house politician gets a call from a u.s. president. but that's what happened to arizona speaker republican rusty bowers after the 2020 election. >> came home from church. my wife and i were sitting in the driveway. >> the white house popped up on his screen. >> so, i take the call and danette steps out, goes in the house. i sat there in my little prius and had a chat with the president with bad phone reception and backed out in front of the house where i get better reception. >> rudy giuliani was on the line, too, and bowers says it was giuliani who began making crazy claims about voter fraud in arizona. >> i can't give you the exact numbers, but i'll throw out numbers but they're kind of, of the audacious numbers, like 200,000 illegal aliens voted, 6000 military ballots were stolen and used.

>> bowers says giuliani wanted him to hold an official arizona house hearing to air these claims publicly. >> and then i said, but what's the whole purpose of this? what are you trying to achieve? and they said, well, we've heard that there's an arcane law in arizona that if you have sufficient cause, that you can throw out the biden electors and put in trump electors. and i said, that's a new one to me. i have never, ever heard of that. and so now you're asking me to do something that's against my oath. and i'm not going to do that. >> but bowers says he told giuliani he had good lawyers and would be happy to put the former mayor in touch with them. >> i don't do anything of this magnitude without having strong legal counsel and proof. and the president says, rudy,

you got the proof? he said, yes, i got the proof. i said, i want the proof. i didn't get it when he said he'd do it. he never called my attorneys. >> but the asks did not stop with giuliani. bowers would later get a call from another trump attorney, john eastman. >> we know there was fraud. >> whom the january 6 committee sees as a key player in this grand plan to undo the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election. >> the ask was kind of that we would throw out the electors. and i said has it ever been done? he said, no. i said, you want me to take my state, 3.2 million voters and just throw them out the window because i want to and that's responsible on my part? i said, ok, thank you. we're not doing that. >> bowers kept his caucus on the sidelines. but in the arizona senate,

republicans there yielded to pressure from team trump and voted to conduct an audit of the results in arizona's largest county. >> when they got the cyber ninjas, i thought, i'll watch. this will be interesting. i don't want to be close to that. >> you might remember the ninjas. the company was run by a trump supporter. they employed ultraviolet lights which could supposedly identify ballots from china. >> they came out that mr. biden won by a larger margin than previously and mr. trump lost a number of votes. >> bowers in his colleagues in arizona were not the only state officials to feel the heat from trump and/or giuliani. material discovered by the january 6 committee showed it happened over and over across the swing states that biden won. >> mr. speaker, this is rudy giuliani and jenna ellis. >> in pennsylvania, bowers's counterpart, republican house speaker bryan cutler, got the calls.

>> hello, mr. speaker. this is jenna ellis and i'm here with mayor giuliani. >> hey, bryan, it's rudy. i really have something important to call your attention, that i think really changes things. >> the january 6 committee says cutler thought the calls were inappropriate and had his lawyers tell giuliani to stop them. >> i understand that you don't want to talk to me now. i just want to bring some facts to your attention. >> and then there was georgia, where the republican secretary of state, brad raffensperger got an hour-long call from president trump. >> brad, what are we going to do? we won the election and it's not fair to take it away from us like this. >> trump probably put more pressure on brad raffensperger than anyone else. it was immense. >> all i want to do is this. i just want to find 11,780 votes. >> and i think it's the phone call that everyone remembers that was later leaked, where he in turn berated brad raffensperger.

>> they're going around playing you and laughing at you behind your back, brad. >> he praised him. he seemed to try to charm him at times and even indicated that if he did not act, that there could be criminal liability for those actions. >> you're not reporting it. that says, hey, you know that's a criminal, that's a criminal offense. >> and it was not just pressure. there were threats, usually from trump supporters who felt empowered or incited by him. take for instance the two men in this hummer with a qanon decal. prosecutors say they drove the vehicle filled with automatic weapons and ammunition from virginia to the philadelphia convention center in early november 2020, where votes were still being counted. at the time, al schmidt was the republican responsible for overseeing the vote count in philadelphia. he received threats aimed at his family. >> tell the truth or your three kids will be fatally shot.

included our address, included my children's names, included a picture of our home. >> and the republican house speaker in that state had protesters show up at his home. >> there were multiple protests, at least three outside of either my district office or my home. my then 15-year-old son was home by himself for the first one. >> in georgia, brad raffensperger's wife received disturbing messages. >> people started threatening her, sending her sexualized texts, those kinds of intimidations. >> georgia election worker shaye moss testified before the house select committee about threats she received via facebook messenger. >> a lot of threats wishing death upon me, telling me that i'll be in jail with my mother. >> these threats happened after rudy giuliani spread lies about

her and her mother, ruby freeman, who was counting votes with moss at state farm arena in atlanta on election night. >> tape earlier in the day of ruby freeman and shaye freeman moss and one other gentleman quite obviously surreptitiously passing around usb ports as if they're vials of heroin or cocaine. i mean, it's obvious to anyone who's a criminal investigator or prosecutor, they are engaged in surreptitious illegal activity. >> what was your mom actually handing you on that video? >> a ginger mint. this turned my life upside down. i don't want anyone knowing my name. i don't want to go anywhere with my mom because she might yell my name out over the grocery aisle or something. i haven't been anywhere at all. i gained about 60 pounds. this affects my life in a major

way. >> congressman adam kinzinger of illinois, the only republican on the january 6 committee other than liz cheney says all the threats are part of trump's plan. >> i don't think you can look at the words and actions of donald trump and think that he wanted anything except the explosion of these threats to people. he could stop that in a second if he wanted to, but he likes it. there are a lot of members of congress that i think voted against impeachment because they were scared for their family and for themselves. what does that mean? it means threats of violence worked. >> up next. >> they suggested that he used the apparatus of government to seize voting machines. mlb partners with t-mobile to not only enhance the fan experience, but to advance how the game is played. aaa relies on t-mobile's network to stay connected nationwide, so they can help get their members back on the road. and we're helping pano ai innovate, to stop the spread of wildfires.

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the united states -- >> take a moment to mark your ballots. >> --- on december 14, 2020, all 50 u.s. states formerly certified their results as their citizens had voted. >> the resolution is unanimously adopted. >> and that, according to the january 6 committee, is what led to a boisterous white house meeting where the former president considered horrifying action. >> on december 18, three people, one of them trump's former national security adviser mike flynn, his lawyer, sidney powell, and patrick byrne, the founder of overstock.com, were let into the white house by an aide to peter navarro, another trump adviser. trump saw them, called them into the oval office, and they start arguing the case where everyone else is failing trump and that trump can take aggressive actions to keep himself in power, and to try to impact the results of an election that he had already lost. they suggested that he used the apparatus of government to

seize voting machines. and as this meeting is taking place, another lawyer in the white house, eric herschmann, figures out what's happening, calls in the white house counsel pat cipollone. mark meadows ends up joining at some point, derek lyons then the staff secretary on his last day at work joins. rudy giuliani gets pulled in. and this goes on four hours. >> how much time did you have alone with the president and i say alone, you had other people with you but before the crowd came running? >> oh, probably no more than 10 or 15 minutes. i bet pat cipollone set a new land speed record. >> i opened the door, and i walked in. i saw general flynn, i saw sidney powell sitting there. i was not happy to see the people in the oval office. i don't think any of these people were providing the president with good advice. >> the team had arrived with a draft executive order that, had

it been signed by donald trump, would have immediately ordered the secretary of defense to seize, collect, retain and analyze ballot boxes. and it would have created, quote, a special counsel to oversee the operation and institute all criminal and civil proceedings as appropriate. >> this is a draft of the executive order that would have allowed trump to seize voting machines. what was your reaction when you heard about this? >> i think most americans could never imagine those things would happen here. and that order, and many of the other things that we've learned through our hearings have been really stunning to me, because repeatedly, i found myself in a situation thinking, my gosh, how could this happen here? and we really thought it couldn't. but it's just continued to emphasize for all of us that that our institutions are fragile. >> the appointment of the special counsel was not hypothetical.

trump wanted sidney powell, a prominent peddler of election lies, in this spot. >> yes, that's the baloney if he had the authority to name a special counsel, and he said yes. and then he asked him if he had the authority to give me whatever security clearance i need and cipollone said yes. and then the president said, ok, you know, i'm naming her that and i'm giving her security clearance. and then shortly before we left was when cipollone and/or herschmann and whoever the other young man was said, you can name her whatever you want to name her and no one's going to pay any attention to it. >> how did he respond? how did the president respond to that? >> something like, you see what i deal with? i deal with this all the time. >> the meeting was extremely heated, with cipollone arguing against the special counsel idea and against seizure of voting machines.

>> to have the federal government seize voting machines, that's a terrible idea for the country. that's not how we do things in the united states. there's no legal authority to do that. the three of them were really sort of forcefully attacking me, verbally. eric, derek, and we are pushing back and we're asking one simple question. as a general matter, where's the evidence? >> what response did you get? >> a variety of responses. like, what do you mean, where's the evidence? you should know. >> there was a discussion of well, you know, we don't have it now but we will have it or whatever. >> derek and i both challenged what she was saying.

and she says, well, the judges are corrupt. and i was like every one? every single case that you've done in the country, you guys lost, every one of them is corrupt? even the ones we appointed? and -- >> what's -- >> i'm being nice. i was much more harsh to her. >> the meeting very nearly devolved into a physical fight. >> flynn screamed at me that i was a quitter and everything, kept on standing up and turning around and screaming at me. and then a certain point i had it with him, though, and i yelled back, either come over or set your -- ass back down. >> i'm going to categorically describe it as you guys are not tough enough. or maybe i put it another way, you're a bunch of --. excuse the expression, but that's --- i'm almost certain the word was used. >> i mean, if it had been me sitting in his chair, i would have fired all of them that night and had him escorted out of the building. >> the january 6 committee discovered text messages sent

during and following the meeting by cassidy hutchinson, the assistant to mark meadows, who testified live before the committee hearing in june, describing the meeting as unhinged. she also snapped this photograph of mark meadows escorting rudy giuliani from the white house, to make sure he did not get back into the mansion. >> you tweeted, quote, somehow the committee testimony featured live underplayed how crazy that december 18 meeting was. how was it underplayed? >> because donald trump faded into the background, as this was all being described. one of the ways in which donald trump has escaped a lot of accountability over time, is he gets people fighting with each other. and that's what people focus on. he considered extreme, really unprecedented actions. now, he didn't take them, but he was unwilling to foreclose options until the last possible second, no matter how extreme and potentially dangerous they were.

>> i remember talking to you after that meeting, and you were shaking. >> i was. and it was, frankly, it took a little bit of process exactly what had happened. but i remember getting a text from a senior republican senate advisor, asking me if there was going to be an issue in terms of a peaceful transfer of power after this. and i said, yes, there is a legitimate issue here. and i think that was a real neon warning sign. >> it was floated, this idea by retired general michael flynn, in the oval office, that donald trump should seize voting machines and ballot boxes from these states that joe biden won. what was your reaction when you heard that? >> i said to my wife, this is beyond all comprehension. i never utter a word like this. but that in particular sounded

in a banana republic to me. had that happened, we would have been in a situation where literally, we're in a constitutional crisis, because nothing in our constitution gives you the answer. >> at the end of the evening, no seizure orders were issued, the president decided to go in a different direction. he would take it in a tweet. >> what he wanted was to show everyone who was telling him he lost the election and that people agreed with him. >> the tweet and the violence that followed ahead. projects by getting the most out of our fall savings now. shop labor day deals under $90 now, in store or online. you can save money by spending less of it. makes sense! oh, i see what you did there!

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december 19, 2020, after a long, loud, disturbing white house meeting about seizing voting machines, president trump sent a tweet that would change history. >> usa! usa! >> "big protests in dc on january 6," it read. "be there, will be wild." >> what he wanted was to show these lawmakers not just in washington, but everyone who was telling him he lost the election, he wanted to show them that people agreed with him and people back to his lies about the election. >> donald trump was summoning his true believers to washington, d.c. and evidence pieced together by the january 6 committee shows they heard that call and began planning immediately. >> women for america first, a

pro-trump organizing group had previously applied for rally permit for january 22 and 23 in washington, d.c. but in the hours after the tweet, they moved their permit to january 6. >> the next day, ali alexander, a trump supporter and leader of the group 'stop the steal' created a website to share and promote logistics about the rally. >> it included event times, places speakers and details on transportation. >> far right personalities such as conspiracy theorist alex jones almost immediately began spreading the word on their platforms. >> one of the most historic events in american history has just taken place. president trump wants the american people to march on washington, d.c. on january 6, 2021. the time for games is over. the time for action is now. >> as word spread, it became clear that trump faithful who plan to attend were also planning for the possibility of

violence. >> we know the rules of engagement. if you have enough people, you can push down any kind of a fence or a wall. >> you better understand something, son. you better understand something. red wave. red wave is going to be a red wedding going down january 6. >> the term red wedding comes from the game of thrones tv series. it means a massacre. >> january 6, kick that door open, look down the street. there are going to be a million plus geeked up on the barricades. >> some of trump's twitter followers did consider his tweets to be orders. that's according to a former twitter employee whose identity was hidden while testifying to the committee. >> it felt as if a mob was being organized. and they were gathering together their weaponry and their logic and their reasoning behind why they were prepared to fight.

>> members of the committee say they were finding similar types of chatter across social media platforms. >> quote, calling all patriots, be in washington, d.c. on january the 6th. this wasn't organized by any group. djt has invited us and it's going to be wild." some of the online rhetoric turned to openly homicidal and white nationalist, such as,why don't we just kill them, every last democrat down to the last man, woman and child? and it's time for the day of the rope. white revolution is the only solution. >> thedonald.win, an openly racist and antisemitic site became a venue for those considering violence to exchange ideas. >> on that site, many shared plans and violent threats. bring handcuffs and wait near the tunnels, wrote one user. a commenter replied suggesting zip ties instead.

one post encouraged others to come with body armor, knuckles, shields, bats, pepper spray, whatever it takes. all of those were used on the sixth. the post concluded, join your local proud boys chapter as well. >> according to the committee, the proud boys, a far-right militia, was active during this time, preparing for january 6. >> the proud boys launched an encrypted chat called the ministry of self defense. the committee obtained hundreds of these messages with show strategic and tactical planning about january 6, including maps of washington, d.c. that pinpoint the location of police. >> even more alarming, some of the people making plans in the proud boys and in the oathkeepers, another right-wing militia had direct ties to people close to donald trump. >> one such ally was lieutenant general michael flynn, trump's former national security

adviser. this photo from december 12 shows flynn and patrick byrne, another trump ally, guarded by indicted oathkeeper roberto minuta. another view of the scene shows oathkeepers leader stewart rhodes in the picture as well. >> both minuta and rhodes were charged with seditious conspiracy, conspiring to use force against the federal government. they pleaded not guilty. but late last year -- >> jury has reached a verdict in the seditious conspiracy trial for alleged leaders of the far-right oathkeepers. >> rhodes and another oathkeeper were found guilty of seditious conspiracy. three others they were tried with were convicted on lesser charges. minuta's trial is underway. more than a dozen oathkeepers and proud boys have been charged with seditious conspiracy. according to the committee, longtime trump ally roger stone had ties to these groups. >> in the same time frame, stone communicated with both

the proud boys and the oathkeepers regularly. the committee obtained encrypted content from a group chat called friends of stone, fos, which included stone, rhodes, tarrio, and ali alexander. >> tarrio is enrique tarrio, leader of the proud boys. >> the chat focused on various pro-trump events in november and december of 2020, as well as january 6. on january 6, stone was guarded by two oathkeepers who have since been criminally indicted for seditious conspiracy. one of them later pleaded guilty and, according to the department of justice, admitted that the oathkeepers were ready to use 'lethal force if necessary against anyone who tried to remove president trump from the white house, including the national guard.' members of the committee say roger stone's connection to the proud boys goes back years and showed him taking the oath required for the first level of initiation into the group.

>> hi, i'm roger stone. i'm a western chauvinist and i refuse to apologize for creating the modern world. >> there are some missing pieces in the public record, such as what, if anything, did donald trump or anyone inside the white house know about the organizing by the far-right militias. >> the night before january 6, president trump instructed his chief of staff, mark meadows to contact both roger stone and michael flynn regarding what would play out the next day. ms. hutchinson, is it your understanding that mr. meadows called mr. stone on the fifth? >> i'm under the impression that mr. meadows did complete both a call to mr. stone and mr. stone and general flynn the evening of the 5th. >> and do you know what they talked about that evening, ms. hutchinson? >> i'm not sure. >> i think what's important is that he was going through the process of selling that the election was stolen and then in

convincing folks that, look, if you believe that an election was stolen from you, violence is the only answer, quite honestly. i mean, that's kind of the american tradition. if you truly believe that the constitution's being disobeyed, every american would actually be on the capitol. up next, donald trump puts the squeeze on justice. >> him telling us that we should say publicly that it was corrupt, that concerned me. ♪(epic music)♪ my renaissance was daring to dream. (♪) cadillac's renaissance, is daring to go all electric. (♪) so... what's your renaissance? (♪)

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you're obviously well aware of what donald trump was doing in terms of his election fraud claims. did you have any apprehension of becoming deputy attorney general? >> no, i didn't have any concerns about that. i had a great deal of confidence in the team. i wanted to be part of the team. you want to be there when it matters. >> you can't ever accept when they steal and rig and rob. >> after attorney general bill barr resigned, richard donohue was appointed to the number two position in the department of justice, the deputy to jeffrey rosen, the new acting attorney general. the two men inherited a department under constant public

attack by the sitting president of the united states, fighting to hold onto an election he falsely claimed had been stolen. >> trump thought the justice department was an arm of his presidency and a way for him to tell them what to do and they should do his bidding and what he wanted. >> as the new target of trump's ire, rosen and donohue fielded near daily complaints from donald trump. >> between december 23rd and january 3rd the president either called me or met with me virtually every day. the common element of all of this was the president expressing his dissatisfaction that the justice department in his view had not done enough to investigate election fraud. >> but they were investigating. the department of justice had been debunking trump's wild election fraud lies one by one, but president trump chose not to

listen. on a december 27th phone call with rosen and donohue, president trump said the department had an obligation to, quote, tell people this was an illegal corrupt election despite no evidence of widespread fraud. trump also pressed them to publicly, quote, just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the republican congressmen. >> that was an exact quote from the president. he indicated that he had some political avenue he wanted to pursue with the congress, but by him telling us that we should say publicly it was corrupt, that concerned me. >> what he intended was for it department of justice to say we have indications there was corruption because from there you can take that seed of doubt and donald trump and republican members of congress can water it. they can grow that doubt, and then through there you could do things like get people to vote against certification on january 6th.

as long as rosen ask donohue were in charge, they told the president they would not publicly back his false election fraud claims. so trump had to find someone who would help him do what he wanted to steal the election. >> jeff clark's name came up on the december 27th phone call with the president. he brought it up and said, look, people tell me i should change the leadership. people are telling me you two are not doing your job. i hear jeff clark is great. people tell me he could get in there and do something, and it was surprising to me. >> surprising because the president would have no reason to even know who jeffrey clark was. >> even within the department very few people had really heard of jeffrey clark. >> but donald trump had. unbeknownst to rosen and donohue, pennsylvania republican congressman scott perry had brought clark to the oval office to meet with president trump on december 22nd. the day after perry had been amongst republican members of congress who joined trump at the white house to discuss

overturning the 2020 election. trump also mentioned jeff clark on a separate call with rosen. >> he made what i regarded as a peculiar reference. i don't remember the fact quote, but it was something about did i know jeff clark or did i know who he was or something like that. i was quizzical as to how does the president even know mr. clark? >> rosen confronted clark who admitted he'd broken the long-standing policy governing communication between the justice department and the white house. white house lawyers pat cipollone and patrick philbin also intervened and warned him not to communicate with the white house. clark agreed, but just two days later escalated the situation with an email that set off a series of events that would rock the justice department. >> we came in on monday, december 28th, a hectic day as they all were, and then in the afternoon we got that e-mail, which i had to sit down and read more than once to make sure i

understood what he was proposing. >> what was he proposing? >> he was proposing sending out a letter signed by the three of us, the acting attorney general, myself, and jeff clark, to georgia but also the other states, the other swing states as well. suggesting, essentially, that they set aside the electors assigned to support president-elect biden and hold hearings and basically had the state legislatures pick a new slate of electors. >> the letter claimed the u.s. department of justice's investigations had, quote, identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states including the state of georgia, unquote. was that true? >> no. >> while the letter was sent solely by jeff clark, it was written with the help of a new justice department employee named ken cue clou ski who according to the committee was

also working with john eastman, the architect of the multistep plan to overturn the election. the letter mirrored some of east man's unconstitutional theories. >> it would have created chaos in the states. i think that would have been disastrous for our country and constitution. >> wasn't that the point of the letter to create that chaos? >> i think so, yes. disturbed by the letter, donohue immediately responded to clark writing, quote, this would be a grave step for the department to take, and it could have tremendous constitutional, political, and social ramifications for the country. >> i had to make it clear to him there was no world which i and certainly the a.g. were going to sign a letter like that. >> rosen and donohue met with clark later that evening. >> i do remember at the very end saying to him what you are proposing is nothing less than having the united states justice department meddle in the outcome of an american presidential election. >> but, again, jeffrey clark ignored the direction of justice department leadership.

he continued to claim falsely there was widespread election fraud. he pushed to send out the letter again, and on january 3rd he told rosen president trump had offered him the role of attorney general, and he had accepted. >> that led to a series of discussions and meetings that day. at this point it had gone so far that we had to bring the other leaders in and explain to them so they were prepared in case it happened but also to get their take on what they would do if that did happen. >> and what did they say they would do? >> they uniformly said they would resign. >> white house call logs obtained by the committee show by 4:19 p.m. that day the white house had already begun referring to clark as the acting attorney general. that evening rosen and donohue went to the white house to argue against trump installing clark as attorney general. the three-hour meeting took place in the oval office, and by

all accounts joined the long list of wild white house meetings. >> the president turned to me and he said one thing we know, you, rosen aren't going to do anything. you don't even agree with the claims of election fraud, and this other guy at least might do something. >> it was basically jeff clark advocating for the leadership change and everyone else advocating against it. it was a very blunt, contentious conversation. hershman and i were on the same level of being the sort of street fighters of the meeting. >> when he finished discussing what he planned on doing, i said good -- excuse me, f-ing deal. congratulationed you just admitted the first act as attorney general would be committing a felony. you're clearly the right candidate for this job. white house counsel pat cipollone was vehemently against

the plan as well. >> he refer today the letter that jeff clark had submitted as a murder-suicide pact that no one should have anything to do with it. i had basically made the point to the president jeff clark was not even qualified to be the attorney general. he's promising you if he's going to conduct these very complex nationwide investigations in record time, and this is coming from a guy who's never conducted a real investigation. mr. clark responded by saying that he's been involved in very significant environmental law briefing before various courts. and that reminded me that, yes, in fact, you're primarily an environmental lawyer. how about you go back to your office and we'll call you when there's an oil spill. >> donohue also informed president trump that upon clark's appointment, justice department leaders would resign en masse. >> the president turned to me and said, steve, you wouldn't leave, would you? i said, mr. president, i've been with you through four attorneys general including two acting attorneys general, but i couldn't be part of this. >> finally persuaded, trump decided against the idea. when clark was subpoenaed by the january 6th committee earlier

this year, he refused to answer questions pleading the fifth more than 125 times. >> did you discuss this draft letter to georgia officials with the president of the united states? >> fifth. >> coming up, inside the plot to pressure the vice president. >> it would have immediately plunged the country into paralyzing constitutional crisis. mlb partners with t-mobile to not only enhance the fan experience, but to advance how the game is played. aaa relies on t-mobile's network to stay connected nationwide, so they can help get their members back on the road. and we're helping pano ai innovate, to stop the spread of wildfires. now's the time to see what america's largest 5g network can do for your business. how long have you been tracking the value of our car? should we sell it? we hold... our low mileage is paying off. you think we should... hold... hoooold!!! hooold! now!!!! i'm on it. i'm, on it.

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>> when the electors in each state gathered. >> all 16 electors cast their ballots for joseph r. biden. >> so did fraudulent electors in seven swing states that biden had won such as arizona. >> donald j. trump of the state of florida, number of votes, 11. >> an ultimate slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote, and we're going to send those results up to congress. >> this desperate scheme to overthrow the election results had been conceived weeks earlier. >> who do you remember being involved in those early discussions around the thanksgiving time regarding having alternate electors meet? >> mr. giuliani, several of mr. giuliani's associates, mr. meadows. >> one of the biggest supporters of this outrageous attempt to subvert american democracy was law professor and trump attorney john eastman. >> the entire executive branch is headed by one guy.

>> trump saw him on fox news, and shortly after that, he was in the oval office. >> fraudulent electors were just step one in eastman's plan, which he outlined in these memos and justified with false claims of, quote, illegal actions by state and local election officials. step two in his plan would have to be executed by vice president mike pence on january 6th while presiding over the opening and counting of electoral ballots. >> what you can do is you can say due to these disputes in these seven states we're going to send this back to the states and the states would then be able to help donald trump win the election. >> it was a lie. in fact, on december 19, 2020, just four days before dr. eastman sent this memo, dr. eastman himself admitted in an e-mail that the fake electors

had no legal weight, referring to the fake electors as, quote, dead on arrival in congress, end quote. >> trump campaign aides and outside lawyers shared their concerns about the scheme in e-mails reported on by "the new york times" maggie haberman and luke broadwater. >> and did they think what they were doing was legal? >> in one e-mail a lawyer working in arizona literally describes them as quote-unquote fake electors, so what we would be doing is sending these fake electors, he has fake in quotes, to go cast ballots. in another e-mail there was a discussion about fear from some officials. this would be seen as quote-unquote treasonous. >> what might have happened had pence trying to go through with this idea that he could reject electoral votes and send them back to the states biden won such as arizona, pennsylvania, wisconsin, georgia? >> he would have immediately plunged the country into what i

characterized would be tantamount to a revolution within a paralyzing constitutional crisis. >> there's just no way that the framers of the constitution who divided power and authority, who separated it out, who had broken away from george iii and declared him to be a tyrant, there was no way that they would have put in the hands of one person the authority to determine who was going to be president of the united states. >> but president trump now saw vice president pence as the man who could keep him in the white house for four more years. >> on december 23rd president trump retweeted a memo from an individual named ivan likeland entitled operation pence card.

they called on the vice president to refuse the electoral college votes from certain states that had certified joe biden as the winner. >> he had been pressuring him behind the scenes, so now he's going public. he's trying to get public pressure on mike pence. >> the january 6th committee's interviews with white house attorneys made it clear that pat cipollone, eric hershman, and many others were appalled. >> the way it was communicated to me was that pat cipollone thought the idea was -- was nutty and at one point confronted eastman basically with the same sentiment. >> what were your prior interactions with eastman? >> he described for me what he thought the ambiguity was in the statute, and he was walking through it at that time. and i said, hold on a second, i want to understand what you're saying. you're saying that you believe the vice president acting as president of the senate can be

the sole decision maker as to -- under your theory -- who becomes the next president of the united states? and he said yes. i said are you out of your f-ing mind? >> the vice president decided he could not buy into eastman's theories. >> was it your impression the vice president had directly conveyed his position on these issues to the president? >> many times. >> and he'd been consistent in conveying his decision to the president? >> very consistent. >> you basically cannot overstate the pressure trump was putting on pence in the lead-up to january 6th. >> i hope that our great vice president, our great vice president comes through for us. he's a great guy. of course if he doesn't come through, i won't like him quite as much. >> that night pence's outside lawyer, richard cohen, phoned retired judge michael ludig, an

esteemed conservative republican for help and advice. >> he said, judge, do you know john eastman. and i said, yes, john was a clerk of mine about 20, 25 years ago. and he said, well, john's advising the president and vice president that the vice president does not have to accept the electoral college votes as they have been cast. i said, well, richard, you can tell the vice president he has no such authority whatsoever. >> why did you take to twitter? >> well, the next morning richard calls and he said, look, we have to get your voice out to the country immediately within the next hour or two. >> judge ludig with the help of his son sent his first ever twitter thread. >> my son sent me twitter instructions on how to tweet a thread of individual tweets that were under 140 characters. i had no earthy idea what any of this was about. i just told my son send it to me

right now or i'll cut you out of the will. >> he read me some of that thread. >> the only responsibility and power of the vice president under the constitution is to faithfully count the electoral college votes as they have been cast. the constitution does not empower the vice president to alter in way the votes that have been cast either by rejecting certain of them or otherwise. >> that twitter thread spread and garnered attention around the world. but with just one day before congress was set to certify biden's electoral college victory, trump continued to apply maximum pressure. in this tweet, quote, the vice president has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors. and when they met at the white house on january 5th. >> in the book peril,

journalists bob woodward and robert costa wrote, quote the president said, quote, if these people say you have the power, wouldn't you want to? the vice president says, quote, i wouldn't want any one person to have that authority. the president says, no, no, you don't understand, mike, you can do this. i don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this. >> trump would not relent. at 1:00 a.m. on january 6th he tweeted, quote, if vice president mike pence comes through for us, we will win the presidency. mike can send it back. and then there was the morning phone call in which the president bullied and belittled the vice president for refusing to go along with his potential coup. >> i don't know if he said you're a wimp, you'll be a wimp. wimp is what i remember. >> it's also been reported the president said to the vice president something to the effect of you don't have the courage to make a hard decision. >> worse, i remember something like that, yeah.

>> soon after the call ended, trump would repeat his dangerous lies and put a target on vice president pence. >> i hope mike is going to do the right thing. i hope so. and mike pence is going to have to come through for us. >> as that speech neared its end, inside the capitol -- >> the senate and house of representatives are meeting in joint session to verify the certificates and count the votes of the electors. >> but outside headed their way -- >> i've got three men walking down the street carrying ar-15. 'g everyone!...hey! buy one pair, get one free for back to school. visionworks. see the difference. at the alzheimer's association walk to end alzheimer's, this is why we walk. ♪ they're why we walk. ♪ we walk in the alzheimer's association

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walking to our vehicles that evening, he looked at me and said something to the effect of cass are you excited for the 6th? we're going to the capitol. it's going to be great. the president's going to be there. he's going to look power. >> on january 3rd, the capitol police issued a special event assessment. congress itself is the target on the 6th. >> now we're on as i say the point of attack. >> listen to what mr. bannon said that day after the first call he had with the president. >> all hell is going to break loose tomorrow. all i can say is strap in. >> they thought they could steal this election. >> then he and donald trump talk again. we don't know what the contents of those calls were because of course, donald trump has not provided that information and steve bannon has not provided that information. >> fight for america! >> the night of january 5th, you were among those summoned to the oval office.

>> yeah, i was brought into the oval office that evening and the entire press team was assembled in there. >> the gates opened a few minutes ago. >> the president had the door to the rose garden open and you could hear the crowd on the e leps ellipse already assembled and you could tell he was feeding off that energy, and he was really excited for the next day. >> the president was making notes talking then about we should go up to the capitol, what's the best route to go to the capitol? >> the january 6th committee's presentation of testimony and documentation left no doubt that trump had every intention of joining his supporters' march to the capitol. >> did the president tell you this, that he wanted to speak at the capitol? >> correct, yes. >> stop the steal! stop the steal! >> we have the power in numbers. we came here to protect our republic. >> fight for trump!

>> the morning of january 6th. >> usa! >> you will listen to us! >> usa! >> supporters began gathering for the rally. >> biden did not win this election. >> what do you think happened? >> fraud. it's not made up. >> meanwhile, the president's insistence on joining their march to the capitol. >> we're taking this country back. >> had white house lawyers such as pat cipollone very worried. >> mr. cipollone said something to the effect of please make sure we don't go up to the kamt capitol, cassidy. keep in touch with me. we're going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen. >> but nobody could change trump's mind. and as he, family, and aides arrived at the rally, his chief of staff, mark meadows, was

keeping the president's hopes alive. >> prior to mr. trump taking the stage that morning, he was under the impression via mr. meadows that it was still possible. >> at the rally the president had a more immediate familiar concern, crowd size. >> when we were in the off stage announce area tent behind the stage, he was very concerned about the shot. >> usa! usa! >> for the pictures that were shared, he wanted to make sure that the rally space was full. so he's being told it's not that people are waiting to get through these mags, through these metal detectors, people don't want to go through them because they have weapons with them. >> during the hearings, the select committee showed a secret service report that quote, some members of the crowd are wearing ballistic helmets, body armor and carrying radio equipment and military grade backpacks.

>> let's listen. >> the committee also played police radio transmissions from that day. >> an individual was entering. he's got blue jeans, a blue jean jacket and underneath the blue jean jacket, he has an ar-15 with a group of individuals, about five to eight other individuals, two of the individuals in that group, they had glock style pistols in their waistband. >> i've got three men walking down the street in fatigues carrying ar-15s >> yet, trump wanted the metal detecters and magnetometers or mags removed. >> we were in the off stage announce tent, i was in the vicinity of a conversation where i overheard the president say something to the effect of i don't care that they have weapons. they're not here to hurt me. take the effing mags away. let my people in, they can march

to the capitol from here. let the people in. take the effing mags away. >> the 45th president of the united states of america. [ cheers ] >> donald j. trump. [ cheers ] >> let's reflect on that for a moment. president trump was aware that a number of the individuals in the crowd had weapons and were wearing body armor and here is what president trump instructed the crowd to do. >> we're going to walk down and i'll be there with you, we're going to walk down anyone you want, but i think right here, we're going to walk down to the capitol -- [ cheers ] -- to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. >> usa! usa! >> how would you characterize donald trump's speech? at the ellipse on january 6th? >> inciting. he said peacefully and patriotically but telling people to go up there and it's hard to

see that was fomenting in telling people he had been harmed and they should be angry on his behalf. >> you'll never take back our country with weakness. you have to show strength, and you have to be strong. >> trump's national security advisors believe the president code name mogul was going to join the procession. >> mogul, the president, was quote, going to the capitol and, quote, they are finding the best route now. >> the chat log continues. military aide has confirmed that he wants to walk. they are begging him to reconsider. current route will be 15th to f, f to 6, 6 to penn, penn to the capitol. so this is happening. >> there's millions of us here. don't let them lie to you. >> what was he going to do up there? >> evening just lead his people, lead his base. be with his base. i don't think this was something that he had thought out too well

other than he was acting like somebody who didn't think he had anything to lose. >> all vice president pence has to do -- >> after more than an hour on stage, the president wrapped up his speech this way. >> fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. so let's walk down pennsylvania avenue. i want to thank you all, god bless you, and god bless america. >> when he got off the stage -- >> let's go! >> -- and everybody was making the movement back to the motorcade, i had overheard mr. meadows say to him that he was still working on getting an off the record movement to the capitol. >> what happened next, as trump and secret service agent robert bobby ingle got into the presidential limousine known as the beast was relayed to hutchinson by trump's deputy chief of staff, tony ornato.

>> when i returned to the white house, tony proceeded to tell me that once the president had gotten into the vehicle with bobby, he thought that they were going up to the capitol and when bobby had relayed to them we're not, we don't have the assets to do it, it's not secure, we're going back to the west wing, the president had very strong -- a very angry response to that. tony described him as being irate. the president said something to the effect of i'm the effing president. take me up to the capitol now. to which bobby responded, sir, we have to go back to the west wing. the president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. mr. ingle grabbed his arm and said, sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. we're going back to the west wing. we're not going to the capitol. >> it's a shocking story, and

we've now heard from at least the washington, d.c., detective something very similar. >> trump would return to the white house and watch his supporters heed his call to fight like hell. ♪ one, two, get loose now ♪ ♪ it takes two to make a... ♪ stay two nights and get a $ 50 best western gift card. book now at bestwestern.com. (♪) rsv can be a dangerous virus... [sneeze] ...for those 60 and older. it's not just a cold. and if you're 60 or older... ...you may be at increased risk of hospitalization... [coughing] ...from this highly... ...contagious virus. not all dangers come with warning labels. talk to your pharmacist or doctor...

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the morning of january 6th, what were your expectations for the day? >> i think i woke up thinking that it was going to be a normal day. i just thought that he was going to go out there, give a speech, and that that would be it. >> sarah matthews is donald trump's former deputy white house press secretary, and was in the white house on january 6th. >> it was kind of quiet, to be honest, in the west wing that morning at least. >> that quiet would not last long. after the speeches at the ellipse, the president returned to the white house and the rioters made their way to the

capitol. >> they broke through, it's on. >> already aware of the increasing violence, trump went into the private dining room just off the oval office at 1:25 p.m. and remained there until 4:00 p.m. >> when donald trump is upset about what he is seeing, he reacts. he was not reacting here. >> for more than three hours, the president of the united states refused to call off the violent rioters who stormed the u.s. capitol. >> he was watching television and admiring what he saw. >> you want to fight? >> he was happy that the certification was delayed. there were myriad efforts to get him to issue some kind of a statement. those did not work. he didn't make a single phone call to any member of his government. >> this is now officially a riot. >> at 1:49 p.m. >> declaring it a riot. >> when d.c. police officially

declared this a riot, trump tweeted out a link to his speech on the ellipse, the very one that had helped incite that riot. realizing the severity of the situation, white house counsel pat cipollone rushed to mark meadows, the president's chief of staff. >> and i remember pat saying to him something to the effect of the rioters have gotten to the capitol, mark. we need to go down and see the president now, and mark looked up at him and said he doesn't want to do anything, pat. >> it's over! you better run, cops! >> right as the violence surged, trump tweeted mike pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution. >> it was the last thing that was really needed in that moment. it pretty much painted a target on the vice president's back by tweeting that out. >> hang mike pence!

hang mike pence! >> i remember pat saying something to the effect of, marks, we need to do something more. they're literally calling for the vice president to be effing hung, and mark had responded something to the effect of you heard him, pat, he thinks mike deserves it. >> working in communications for president trump i was very aware of just the impact that his words have on his supporters. that tweet suggested to them that what they were doing at the capitol was okay and that they were justified in their violence and that it was vice president pence who was allowing an election to be stolen. >> he has betrayed this president and he has betrayed the people of the united states! >> inside the kcapitol, the vic president was rushed from the senate floor. secret service held pence along with his family and aides in his senate office as they worked to clear a path to safety. >> if we lose any more time, we may have -- we may lose the

ability to leave. >> a white house security official who chose to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation explained exactly how dire the situation was for pence and his secret service detail. >> the members of the vp detail at this point were starting to fear for their own lives. they were running out of options and they were getting nervous. it sounds like that we came very close to either -- worse stwl when the secret service made the call to maove the vice presiden again, rioters came within 40 feet of him. as he was held in an undisclosed location, it was the vice president who directed a response to the riot. >> stop the steal! stop the steal! >> it was pence who waslawmaker. pence who was on the phone with people in the pentagon about what was happening with the

national guard. >> at 2:38 p.m., trump tweeted, quote, please support our capitol police and law enforcement, they are truly on the side of our country. stay peaceful. by this point, rioters were in both chambers. >> this is our house. >> and the capitol rotunda was filled with tear gas. >> at the end of the tweet, he used the phrase stay peaceful. kayleigh mcenany shared with me that he did not want to include that, and that it took a lot of convincing on their part. that was extremely alarming to me. >> the rioters were getting trump's messages in realtime. as heard on walkie-talkie communications between rioters. >> trump just tweeted, please support our capitol police. they are on our side. do not harm them. >> he didn't say not to do anything to the congressmen. >> i think what the committee

showed about trump's tweets is that they do take them literally. his messages were received by the people who were there at the capitol very loudly. >> at any moment during the siege on the capitol, the president could have addressed the country live from the white house. >> there was a camera on in the white house briefing room at all times. he could have walked over there, could have been on camera almost instantaneously and blasted out a message to the american people. he had every opportunity, and he chose to not do that. >> when the president finally relented and released a video telling the rioters to go home, it was 4:17 p.m. three hours and seven minutes since the riot began. >> it beam very clear that the feds basically had taken the capitol back over, that they were not going to succeed in stopping the counting and only then did he come out with that

statement. >> we had an election that was stolen from us. it was a landslide election, and everyone knows it. >> seeing him on camera start the video by talking about a stolen election, i just immediately knew that he wasn't going to meet the moment and say what was needed in that time. >> so go home. we love you. you're very special. >> yet again, many rioters took the president's words as instructions. >> i'm here delivering the president's message. >> working in communications for him, i knew that i would be tasked with defending that, and we had just witnessed all this violence at the capitol, and these folks attacking police officers, chanting horrible things, and i knew that i couldn't defend that because it was indefensible. i resigned that evening.

>> in the immediate aftermath of the riot as blood and broken glass littered the halls of congress, according to the january 6th committee there were those who were still trying to j overturn the election. that evening rudy giuliani called a number of republican senators and urged them to continue to try and delay the certification. >> i'm calling you because i want to discuss with you how they're trying to rush this hearing. >> the next day john eastman called white house counsel eric herschmann to discuss an appeal in georgia. >> i said to him, are you out of your effing mind? now i'm going to give you the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life, get a great effing criminal defense lawyer. you're going to need it. and then i hung up on him. >> and the president released a second video condemning the violence more forcefully on january 7th. >> like all americans, i am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem.

>> but according to white house aide cassidy hutchinson, it was only the threat of his cabinet invoking the 25th amendment that con vevinced him to make this video. advisers warned trump that talk of removing him from office was gaining traction. >> think about what might happen in the final 15 days of your presidency if we don't do this. there's already talks about invoking the 525th amendment, yu need this as cover. >> even then he still refused to admit that the election was over. >> this election is now over. congress has certified the results. i don't want to say the election is over. i just want to say congress has certified the results without saying the election's over, okay? >> that video just showed you that even after every seingle constitutional process had been completed and after over 60 courts had heard his challenges and rejected them, he still

refused. it was fundamentally a rejection of the rule of law, and again, america can't sustain itself if we have a commander in chief who is at war with the rule of law. kocoming up. >> i want the american people to look at these hearings and understand how close we came that day to losing that self-governance. >> this is our capitol! >> the battle to prevent another january 6th. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health versus 16 grams in ensure® high protein. boost® high protein. now available in cinnabon® bakery-inspired flavor. learn more at boost.com/tv ♪ tourists tourists that turn into scientists.

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what we showed in every one of those hearings and every one of those pieces is he knew what he was doing. donald trump knew he was pressuring the vice president. donald trump knew that he was pressuring state officials. he knew he was lying. he was trying to basically change out the doj to be people sympathetic to him to give at least the air of federal complicity in challenging election results. and he knew when he was sitting in the office during the attack on january 6th that there was a chance it would >> what do you want americans to take away from the hearings? >> i want the american people to look at these hearings and understand how close we came that day to losing that self

governance. freedom isn't fro. you have to defend this around not just overseas but sometimes here at home. >> do you miss me yet? do you miss me? >> in the aftermast of january 6th and his election loss. >> thoirnt gons, that's another beauty. >> he had mixed success. in arizona and pennsylvania he backed gubernatorial candidates, and mehmet oz, all of them lost. of the ten republicans in the house of representatives who voted to impeach trump because of january 6th, only two returned to congress in 2023. others declined to run for reelection such as adam kinsinger or lost to more trump

supporting candidates such as liz cheney. >> this mission you've taken on has cost you your job. do you have any regrets? >> our obligation, my obligation is very much above politics. i can't imagine having done anything differently at any stage of this process since january 6th. it saddens me that so many of my republican colleagues have not met the moment. >> kinsinger and cheney are the only republicans on the house select committee to investigate january 6th. they have become faraiahs. >> the personality of one man. >> the select committee to investigate the january 6th attack had a herculean task set it. its members and staff conducted more than 1,000 interviews, filmed hundreds of taped

depositions and collected more than 140,000 documents. and finally the week of december 19th the committee showed us its full hand. >> referring donald trump to the justice department for criminal prosecution. >> for four different crimes. including obstruction of an official proceeding. on january 6th, 2021. >> the whole purpose and obvious effect of trump's scheme were to obstruct, influence and impede this official proceeding. >> conspiracy to defraud the united states. conspiracy to make false statements and perhaps the most grave referral the one for aidings and assisting an insurrection. >> anyone who insights the others for rebelling, assists in doing so or gives aid and

comfort to those who are engage being in insurrection is guilty of a federal crime. >> it is a crime difficult to prove. >> you have to have criminal intent here. you have if problem of proving what was in the president's mine. he was willfully blind. should he have known? yes. but if he did not i don't know that was a crime. >> not everyone shares that view. >> by the president of the united states would not be either a legal defense or a political defense to the president. that's about as clear as a former judge could say it. >> ultimately the justice department will decide whether to bring any charges against former president trurchl trn eastman or anyone else. in november, attorney general merrick garland appointed jack

smith as special counsel in charge of these investigations. >> we know the justice department has been investigating jeff rip clark and john eastman has been one especially. >> clark dismissthe investigation as politically motivated and eastman fought the doj's search warrant in court. but there are state level investigations as well. rudy giuliani has been informed he's a target in a georgia investigation. >> we'll not talk about this until it's over. >> and appeared before a grand jury in august. at the moment perhaps the most perilous investigation of donald trump has nothing to do with january 6th. >> the one into his handling of classified documents and taking documents to mar a lago when he

left office. >> the government has recovered more than 320 classified documents from trump's home in florida. the redacted search warrant identified three federal crimes that the department of justice lists as the foundation of its investigation. obstruction of justice, criminal handling of government records, and violations of the espionage act. justice department investigations of donald trump are certain to be helped by the 845 page committee report, and the hundreds of documents and transcripts released by the january 6th committee. as the congress came to a close in 2022. among the recommendations in the report: >> the committee believes that those who took an oath to protect and defend the constitution on january 6th should be barred, disqualified and bashed from holding government office. >> president donald. >> that's aimed at trump. >> j trump. >> who has already announced he is returning for president in

2024. something the committee has said should not be allowed. >> i'm thrilled to be brack. >> no man -- back. >> no man who would behave that way at that time could ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again. he is unfit for any office. >> among the thousands of pages of triments released by the committee were new bits of information including cassidy hutchinson's claim she saw mark met owes burn documents in his fireplace about a dozen times in the transition. >> even donald trump didn't burn the tapes, there were gaps but he didn't burn the tapes. >> meadows told her he knew he lost the 2020 election. does the president really think he loss? he said you know a lot of times he told me lost but he wants to keep fighting it.

how much the committee hearings and findings have impacted trump remains unclear. >> i think january 6th hearings present a very precise case. trump's own appointees, republican appointees were the ones they used to testify against him. whether that lingers in voters minds i think is a question. >> in the sense they've changed a lot of minds, they either don't care or that biden is not legitimately elected president. >> is destiny of this new revelations from these transcripts enough to loosen donald trump's grip on the republican party, you think? >> i doubt it. not at his base. his base is going to stay where they are. they don't care about the facts. >> donald trump and his supporters oar clear and present danger to the american democracy. >> you have been shouting from the roof thops, this is not just

about 2020. you're worried about 2024. >> i am. and right now the former president his allies and supporters including in congress, and including in the states, represent a clear and present danger to american democracy. that's not because of what they did on january 6th. it's because of what they pledged to do in 2024. >> do you think that republicans are hearing what you're saying? >> i hope they are. >> our democracy in the united states relies upon good people and positions of power to do the lawful and right thing. from the president all the way down to local officials. we're having these discussions because there were enough people, enough republicans who did the right thing in 2020. perhaps next time there won't be. january 6th has taught us anything is that nothing is guaranteed. this is american experiment. not the american problem of theorem.

for our republic to survive we need everyone loim not to one man but to the united states of america. -- loyal not to one man but to the united states of america. >> welcome to the whole story. i'm anderson cooper. former president donald trump has now better than contractually indicted in georgia. the fulton county district attorney also charged 18 defendants, including warehouse chief of staff mark meadows, sydney powell john eastman and others. rack tearing is one of the 13 charges against him. tonight we take a close look at exactly what mr. trump and his allies did in georgia in the weeks afte